Napoleon Sentence Examples

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Impelled by his convictions and talent, supported by the emperor Napoleon III.

The complete disregard shown by Napoleon for one of the chief conditions of the treaty of Lunville (February 1801)that stipulating for the independence of the Ligurian and Cisalpine Republicsbecame more and more apparent every year.

Prince Andrew understood that this was said of him and that it was Napoleon who said it.

After looking at him Napoleon smiled.

For some time past the relations between Napoleon and the pope, Pius VII., had been Napoleon severely strained, chiefly because the emperor insisted ~pacj~ on controlling the church, both in France and in the kingdom of Italy, in a way inconsistent with the traditions of the Vatican, but also because the pontiff refused to grant the divorce between Jerome Bonaparte and the former Miss Patterson on which Napoleon early in the year 1806 laid so much stress.

This ambitious marshal, brother-in-law of Napoleon, foiled in his hope of gaining the crown of Spain, received that of Naples in the summer of 1808, Joseph Bonaparte being moved M

Having said this, Napoleon rode on to meet Marshal Lannes, who, hat in hand, rode up smiling to the Emperor to congratulate him on the victory.

Mark Twain has said that the two most interesting characters of the nineteenth century are Napoleon and Helen Keller.

"The execution of the Duc d'Enghien," declared Monsieur Pierre, "was a political necessity, and it seems to me that Napoleon showed greatness of soul by not fearing to take on himself the whole responsibility of that deed."

If the whole activity of the leaders serves as the expression of the people's will, as some historians suppose, then all the details of the court scandals contained in the biographies of a Napoleon or a Catherine serve to express the life of the nation, which is evident nonsense; but if it is only some particular side of the activity of an historical leader which serves to express the people's life, as other so-called "philosophical" historians believe, then to determine which side of the activity of a leader expresses the nation's life, we have first of all to know in what the nation's life consists.

An attempt to organize a Hungarian legion during the Crimean War was stopped; but in 1859 he entered into negotiations with Napoleon, left England for Italy, and began the organization of a Hungarian legion, which was to make a descent on the coast of Dalmatia.

Santarosa entered the service of Napoleon during the annexation of Piedmont to France, and was sub-prefect of Spezia from 1812 to 1814.

He then retired to Vienna, and in 1812 he took part in the attempt to excite a second insurrection against Napoleon in Tirol.

But after the restoration of the grand duke, Montanelli, who was in Paris, was tried and condemned by default; he remained some years in France, where he became a partizan of Napoleon III.

In 1815 he interrupted his studies at Berlin to serve as a volunteer in the campaign against Napoleon, and was wounded in the battle of Ligny.

In 1858 he was sent to St Petersburg on a special mission to seek the support of Russia against Napoleon III.

His uncle was ennobled by King Louis XVI., and his father was made a count by Napoleon I.

These were removed to Paris, and when Napoleon was crowned emperor a century and a half later he chose Childeric's bees for the decoration of his coronation mantle.

In exchange for the bishopric of Bamberg; and it continued to be a papal possession until 1806, when Napoleon granted it to Talleyrand with the title of prince.

He was created a baron of the empire in 1809, and, on the fall of Napoleon, was first secretary of the cabinet and confidential secretary.

Of still greater importance for the history of Napoleon are Fain's Memoires, which were published posthumously in 1908; they relate more particularly to the last five years of the empire, and give a detailed picture of the emperor at work on his correspondence among his confidential secretaries.

Dunbar attested his constancy and gave proof that Cromwell was a master of the tactics of all arms. Preston was an example like Austerlitz of the two stages of a battle as defined by Napoleon, the first flottante, the second foudroyante.

Above the harbour, between the forts Stella and Falcone, is the palace of Napoleon I., and 4 m.

Napoleon then turned fiercely against Maria Carolina of Naples upbraiding her with her perfidy.

It is more important to observe that under Joseph and his ministers or advisers, including the Frenchmen Roederer, Dumas, Miot de Melito and the Corsican Saliceti, great progress was made in abolishing feudal laws and customs, in reforming the judicial procedure and criminal laws on the model of the Code Napoleon, and in attempting the beginnings of elementary education.

The peace of Tilsit (July 7, 1807) enabled Napoleon to press on his projects for securing the command of the Mediterranean, thenceforth a fundamental axiom of his policy.

Napoleon sought to push matters to an extreme, and on the 2nd of April Annexa- he adopted the rigorous measure of annexing to the tion of the kingdom of Italy the papal provinces of Ancona, Papal Urbino, Macerata and Camerina.

The Roman territory was divided into two departmentsthe Tiber and Trasimenus; the Code Napoleon was introduced, public works were set on foot and great advance was made in the material sphere.

On the other hand, they suffered from the rigorous measures of the continental system, which seriously crippled trade at the ports and were not compensated by the increased facilities for trade with France which Napoleon opened up. The drain of men to supply his armies in Germany, Spain and Russia was also a serious loss.

Very many of them, distrusting both of these kings, sought to act independently in favor of an Italian republic. Lord William Bentinck with an AngloSicilian force landed at Leghorn on the 8th of March 1814, and issued a proclamation to the Italians bidding them rise against Napoleon in the interests of their own freedom.

Parma and Piacenza were assigned to Marie Louise, daughter of the Austrian emperor and wife of Napoleon, on behalf of her son, the little Napoleon, but by subsequent arrangements (1816-1817) the duchy was to revert at her death to the Bourbons of Parma, then reigning at Lucca.

The pope, Pius VII., who had long been kept under restraint by Napoleon at Fontainebleau, returned to Rome in May 1814, and was recognized by the congress of Vienna (not without some demur on the part of Austria) as the sovereign of all the former possessions of the Holy See.

Lord William Bentinck finally took over large administrative powers, seeing that Ferdinand, owing to his dulness, and Maria Carolina, owing to her very suspicious intrigues with Napoleon, could never be trusted.

This result, accruing from British intervention, was in some respects similar to that exerted by Napoleon on the Italians of the mainland.

To the mass of the people the restoration of the old governments undoubtedly brought a sense of relief, for the terrible drain in men and money caused by Napoleon's wars had caused much discontent, whereas now there was a prospect of peace and rest.

I Among the insurgents of Romagna was Louis Napoleon, after wards emperor of the French.

The emperor Napoleon, almost alone among Frenchmen, had genuine Italian sympathies.

Suddenly on the 14th of January 1858 Napoleons life was attempted by Felice Orsini a Mazzinian Romagnol, who believed that Napoleon was the chief obstacle to the success of the revolution in Italy.

In exchange for French assistance Piedmont would cede Savoy and perhaps Nice to France; and a marriage between Victor Emmanuels daughter Clothilde and Jerome Bonaparte, to which Napoleon attached great importance, although not made a definite condition, was also discussed.

At the opening of the Piedmontese parliament in 1859, Victor Emmanuel pronounced the memorable words that he could not be insensible to the cry of pain (ii grido di dolore) which reached him from all parts of Italy.

To this course Napoleon consented, to the despair of King Victor Emmanuel and Cavour, who saw in this a proof that he wished to back out of his engagement and make war impossible.

Urged by a peremptory message from Napoleon, Cavour saw the necessity of bowing to the will of Europe, of disbanding the volunteers and reducing the army to a peace footing.

On the fiat 29th Francis Joseph declared war, and the next day 1859 his troops crossed theTicino, a move which was followed, as Napoleon had stated it would be, by a French declaration of war.

Then Napoleon suddenly drew back, unwilling, for many reasons, to continue the campaign.

Napoleon Bonaparte made a comment along these lines when he stated, "Man is entitled by birthright to a share of the Earth's produce sufficient to fill the needs of his existence."

Napoleon went to St. Helena; Quoil came to Walden Woods.

But before Pierre--who at that moment imagined himself to be Napoleon in person and to have just effected the dangerous crossing of the Straits of Dover and captured London--could pronounce Pitt's sentence, he saw a well-built and handsome young officer entering his room.

The English will come off badly, you know, if Napoleon gets across the Channel.

"And so you think Napoleon will manage to get an army across?" asked Boris with a smile.

Napoleon has also formed his plan by now, not worse than this one.

But it will please our sovereign the Emperor Napoleon if we take this bridge, so let us three go and take it!' 'Yes, let's!' say the others.

To the joy and pride of the whole army, a personal interview was refused, and instead of the Sovereign, Prince Dolgorukov, the victor at Wischau, was sent with Savary to negotiate with Napoleon if, contrary to expectations, these negotiations were actuated by a real desire for peace.

The fog lay unbroken like a sea down below, but higher up at the village of Schlappanitz where Napoleon stood with his marshals around him, it was quite light.

The whole French army, and even Napoleon himself with his staff, were not on the far side of the streams and hollows of Sokolnitz and Schlappanitz beyond which we intended to take up our position and begin the action, but were on this side, so close to our own forces that Napoleon with the naked eye could distinguish a mounted man from one on foot.

Napoleon, in the blue cloak which he had worn on his Italian campaign, sat on his small gray Arab horse a little in front of his marshals.

It was Napoleon accompanied by two aides-de-camp.

Napoleon apparently remembered seeing him on the battlefield and, addressing him, again used the epithet "young man" that was connected in his memory with Prince Andrew.

He was already enjoying that happiness when that little Napoleon had suddenly appeared with his unsympathizing look of shortsighted delight at the misery of others, and doubts and torments had followed, and only the heavens promised peace.

In the autumn of 1806 everybody had again begun talking of the war with Napoleon with even greater warmth than the year before.

On approaching Alexander he raised his hat, and as he did so, Rostov, with his cavalryman's eye, could not help noticing that Napoleon did not sit well or firmly in the saddle.

Napoleon said something to Alexander, and both Emperors dismounted and took each other's hands.

Alexander and Napoleon, with the long train of their suites, approached the right flank of the Preobrazhensk battalion and came straight up to the crowd standing there.

This was said by the undersized Napoleon, looking up straight into Alexander's eyes.

Napoleon slightly turned his head, and put his plump little hand out behind him as if to take something.

Napoleon, without looking, pressed two fingers together and the badge was between them.

Napoleon merely laid the cross on Lazarev's breast and, dropping his hand, turned toward Alexander as though sure that the cross would adhere there.

An institution upholding honor, the source of emulation, is one similar to the Legion d'honneur of the great Emperor Napoleon, not harmful but helpful to the success of the service, but not a class or court privilege.

Napoleon himself had noticed her in the theater and said of her: "C'est un superbe animal." * Her success as a beautiful and elegant woman did not surprise Pierre, for she had become even handsomer than before.

Had he not at one time longed with all his heart to establish a republic in Russia; then himself to be a Napoleon; then to be a philosopher; and then a strategist and the conqueror of Napoleon?

It naturally seemed to Napoleon that the war was caused by England's intrigues (as in fact he said on the island of St. Helena).

The actions of Napoleon and Alexander, on whose words the event seemed to hang, were as little voluntary as the actions of any soldier who was drawn into the campaign by lot or by conscription.

On the twenty-ninth of May Napoleon left Dresden, where he had spent three weeks surrounded by a court that included princes, dukes, kings, and even an emperor.

Before leaving, Napoleon showed favor to the emperor, kings, and princes who had deserved it, reprimanded the kings and princes with whom he was dissatisfied, presented pearls and diamonds of his own--that is, which he had taken from other kings--to the Empress of Austria, and having, as his historian tells us, tenderly embraced the Empress Marie Louise--who regarded him as her husband, though he had left another wife in Paris--left her grieved by the parting which she seemed hardly able to bear.

Napoleon looked up and down the river, dismounted, and sat down on a log that lay on the bank.

The very day that Napoleon issued the order to cross the Niemen, and his vanguard, driving off the Cossacks, crossed the Russian frontier, Alexander spent the evening at the entertainment given by his aides-de- camp at Bennigsen's country house.

At two in the morning of the fourteenth of June, the Emperor, having sent for Balashev and read him his letter to Napoleon, ordered him to take it and hand it personally to the French Emperor.

He referred to the fact that the Emperor Napoleon had resented the demand that he should withdraw his troops from Prussia, especially when that demand became generally known and the dignity of France was thereby offended.

Balashev told him why he considered Napoleon to be the originator of the war.

Balashev rode on, supposing from Murat's words that he would very soon be brought before Napoleon himself.

Four days before, sentinels of the Preobrazhensk regiment had stood in front of the house to which Balashev was conducted, and now two French grenadiers stood there in blue uniforms unfastened in front and with shaggy caps on their heads, and an escort of hussars and uhlans and a brilliant suite of aides-de-camp, pages, and generals, who were waiting for Napoleon to come out, were standing at the porch, round his saddle horse and his Mameluke, Rustan.

Napoleon received Balashev in the very house in Vilna from which Alexander had dispatched him on his mission.

Duroc said that Napoleon would receive the Russian general before going for his ride.

When Napoleon, having finished speaking, looked inquiringly at the Russian envoy, Balashev began a speech he had prepared long before: Sire!

During the speech that followed, Balashev, who more than once lowered his eyes, involuntarily noticed the quivering of Napoleon's left leg which increased the more Napoleon raised his voice.

"So now you want me to retire beyond the Niemen--only the Niemen?" repeated Napoleon, looking straight at Balashev.

Napoleon turned quickly and began to pace the room.

This quivering of his left leg was a thing Napoleon was conscious of.

Napoleon almost screamed, quite to his own surprise.

But Napoleon did not let him speak.

A sovereign should not be with the army unless he is a general! said Napoleon, evidently uttering these words as a direct challenge to the Emperor.

I give you my word of honor," said Napoleon, forgetting that his word of honor could carry no weight--"I give you my word of honor that I have five hundred and thirty thousand men this side of the Vistula.

Napoleon grinned maliciously and again raised his snuffbox to his nose.

Balashev knew how to reply to each of Napoleon's remarks, and would have done so; he continually made the gesture of a man wishing to say something, but Napoleon always interrupted him.

To the alleged insanity of the Swedes, Balashev wished to reply that when Russia is on her side Sweden is practically an island: but Napoleon gave an angry exclamation to drown his voice.

Napoleon was in that state of irritability in which a man has to talk, talk, and talk, merely to convince himself that he is in the right.

He knew that none of the words now uttered by Napoleon had any significance, and that Napoleon himself would be ashamed of them when he came to his senses.

Napoleon was silent, still looking derisively at him and evidently not listening to him.

Napoleon nodded condescendingly, as if to say, I know it's your duty to say that, but you don't believe it yourself.

When Balashev had ended, Napoleon again took out his snuffbox, sniffed at it, and stamped his foot twice on the floor as a signal.

Napoleon, without giving them a glance, turned to Balashev:

And Napoleon went quickly to the door.

Napoleon met Balashev cheerfully and amiably.

"But a large number of monasteries and churches is always a sign of the backwardness of a people," said Napoleon, turning to Caulaincourt for appreciation of this remark.

So little was his rejoinder appreciated that Napoleon did not notice it at all and naively asked Balashev through what towns the direct road from there to Moscow passed.

Napoleon was in that well-known after-dinner mood which, more than any reasoned cause, makes a man contented with himself and disposed to consider everyone his friend.

Napoleon turned to him with a pleasant, though slightly ironic, smile.

"And let him know that I will do so!" said Napoleon, rising and pushing his cup away with his hand.

The letter taken by Balashev was the last Napoleon sent to Alexander.

Armfeldt virulently hated Napoleon and was a general full of self-confidence, a quality that always influenced Alexander.

They feared Napoleon, recognized his strength and their own weakness, and frankly said so.

Pfuel alone seemed to consider Napoleon a barbarian like everyone else who opposed his theory.

Bagration was the best, Napoleon himself admitted that.

It was said that the Emperor was leaving the army because it was in danger, it was said that Smolensk had surrendered, that Napoleon had an army of a million and only a miracle could save Russia.

His love for Natasha, Antichrist, Napoleon, the invasion, the comet, 666, L'Empereur Napoleon, and L'russe Besuhof--all this had to mature and culminate, to lift him out of that spellbound, petty sphere of Moscow habits in which he felt himself held captive and lead him to a great achievement and great happiness.

In historical works on the year 1812 French writers are very fond of saying that Napoleon felt the danger of extending his line, that he sought a battle and that his marshals advised him to stop at Smolensk, and of making similar statements to show that the danger of the campaign was even then understood.

And not only was Napoleon not afraid to extend his line, but he welcomed every step forward as a triumph and did not seek battle as eagerly as in former campaigns, but very lazily.

Napoleon having cut our armies apart advanced far into the country and missed several chances of forcing an engagement.

Napoleon advanced farther and we retired, thus arriving at the very result which caused his destruction.

The town was being bombarded by a hundred and thirty guns which Napoleon had ordered up after four o'clock.

I swear to you on my honor that Napoleon was in such a fix as never before and might have lost half his army but could not have taken Smolensk.

He is as right as other historians who look for the explanation of historic events in the will of one man; he is as right as the Russian historians who maintain that Napoleon was drawn to Moscow by the skill of the Russian commanders.

From Vyazma Napoleon ordered a direct advance on Moscow.

Followed by Lelorgne d'Ideville, an interpreter, he overtook Napoleon at a gallop and reined in his horse with an amused expression.

Napoleon smiled and told them to give the Cossack a horse and bring the man to him.

Several adjutants galloped off, and an hour later, Lavrushka, the serf Denisov had handed over to Rostov, rode up to Napoleon in an orderly's jacket and on a French cavalry saddle, with a merry, and tipsy face.

Napoleon told him to ride by his side and began questioning him.

But when Napoleon asked him whether the Russians thought they would beat Bonaparte or not, Lavrushka screwed up his eyes and considered.

Lelorgne d'Ideville smilingly interpreted this speech to Napoleon thus: "If a battle takes place within the next three days the French will win, but if later, God knows what will happen."

Napoleon, after making the Cossack a present, had him set free like a bird restored to its native fields.

Napoleon rode on, dreaming of the Moscow that so appealed to his imagination, and "the bird restored to its native fields" galloped to our outposts, inventing on the way all that had not taken place but that he meant to relate to his comrades.

On the way to Bogucharovo, a princely estate with a dwelling house and farm where they hoped to find many domestic serfs and pretty girls, they questioned Lavrushka about Napoleon and laughed at his stories, and raced one another to try Ilyin's horse.

"The French," replied Ilyin jestingly, "and here is Napoleon himself"-- and he pointed to Lavrushka.

On the twenty-fourth, we are told, Napoleon attacked this advanced post and took it, and, on the twenty-sixth, attacked the whole Russian army, which was in position on the field of Borodino.

Napoleon, riding to Valuevo on the twenty-fourth, did not see (as the history books say he did) the position of the Russians from Utitsa to Borodino (he could not have seen that position because it did not exist), nor did he see an advanced post of the Russian army, but while pursuing the Russian rearguard he came upon the left flank of the Russian position--at the Shevardino Redoubt--and unexpectedly for the Russians moved his army across the Kolocha.

By crossing to the other side of the Kolocha to the left of the highroad, Napoleon shifted the whole forthcoming battle from right to left (looking from the Russian side) and transferred it to the plain between Utitsa, Semenovsk, and Borodino--a plain no more advantageous as a position than any other plain in Russia--and there the whole battle of the twenty-sixth of August took place.

Had Napoleon not ridden out on the evening of the twenty-fourth to the Kolocha, and had he not then ordered an immediate attack on the redoubt but had begun the attack next morning, no one would have doubted that the Shevardino Redoubt was the left flank of our position, and the battle would have taken place where we expected it.

We should have attacked Napoleon in the center or on the right, and the engagement would have taken place on the twenty-fifth, in the position we intended and had fortified.

Below the village the road crossed the river by a bridge and, winding down and up, rose higher and higher to the village of Valuevo visible about four miles away, where Napoleon was then stationed.

The officers said that either Napoleon or Murat was there, and they all gazed eagerly at this little group of horsemen.

But Napoleon came and swept him aside, unconscious of his existence, as he might brush a chip from his path, and his Bald Hills and his whole life fell to pieces.

Then all these Westphalians and Hessians whom Napoleon is leading would not follow him into Russia, and we should not go to fight in Austria and Prussia without knowing why.

The Emperor Napoleon had not yet left his bedroom and was finishing his toilet.

Napoleon, frowning, looked at him from under his brows.

But Napoleon had dressed and come out with such unexpected rapidity that he had not time to finish arranging the surprise.

Napoleon noticed at once what they were about and guessed that they were not ready.

Napoleon made ironic remarks during Fabvier's account, as if he had not expected that matters could go otherwise in his absence.

Napoleon turned to him gaily and pulled his ear.

But though Napoleon knew that de Beausset had to say something of this kind, and though in his lucid moments he knew it was untrue, he was pleased to hear it from him.

Napoleon smiled and, lifting his head absent-mindedly, glanced to the right.

"Ha, what's this?" asked Napoleon, noticing that all the courtiers were looking at something concealed under a cloth.

It was a portrait, painted in bright colors by Gerard, of the son borne to Napoleon by the daughter of the Emperor of Austria, the boy whom for some reason everyone called "The King of Rome."

Though it was not clear what the artist meant to express by depicting the so-called King of Rome spiking the earth with a stick, the allegory apparently seemed to Napoleon, as it had done to all who had seen it in Paris, quite clear and very pleasing.

After breakfast Napoleon in de Beausset's presence dictated his order of the day to the army.

But Napoleon nodded to the traveler, and de Beausset had to mount.

When Napoleon came out of the tent the shouting of the Guards before his son's portrait grew still louder.

On the twenty-fifth of August, so his historians tell us, Napoleon spent the whole day on horseback inspecting the locality, considering plans submitted to him by his marshals, and personally giving commands to his generals.

Having listened to a suggestion from Davout, who was now called Prince d'Eckmuhl, to turn the Russian left wing, Napoleon said it should not be done, without explaining why not.

To a proposal made by General Campan (who was to attack the fleches) to lead his division through the woods, Napoleon agreed, though the so-called Duke of Elchingen (Ney) ventured to remark that a movement through the woods was dangerous and might disorder the division.

Having inspected the country opposite the Shevardino Redoubt, Napoleon pondered a little in silence and then indicated the spots where two batteries should be set up by the morrow to act against the Russian entrenchments, and the places where, in line with them, the field artillery should be placed.

In the disposition it is said first that the batteries placed on the spot chosen by Napoleon, with the guns of Pernetti and Fouche; which were to come in line with them, 102 guns in all, were to open fire and shower shells on the Russian fleches and redoubts.

General Campan's division did not seize the first fortification but was driven back, for on emerging from the wood it had to reform under grapeshot, of which Napoleon was unaware.

But in the disposition it is said that, after the fight has commenced in this manner, orders will be given in accordance with the enemy's movements, and so it might be supposed that all necessary arrangements would be made by Napoleon during the battle.

But this was not and could not be done, for during the whole battle Napoleon was so far away that, as appeared later, he could not know the course of the battle and not one of his orders during the fight could be executed.

At the battle of Borodino Napoleon shot at no one and killed no one.

Had Napoleon then forbidden them to fight the Russians, they would have killed him and have proceeded to fight the Russians because it was inevitable.

And it was not Napoleon who directed the course of the battle, for none of his orders were executed and during the battle he did not know what was going on before him.

It only seemed to Napoleon that it all took place by his will.

These dispositions and orders only seem worse than previous ones because the battle of Borodino was the first Napoleon did not win.

On returning from a second inspection of the lines, Napoleon remarked:

Having finished his second glass of punch, Napoleon went to rest before the serious business which, he considered, awaited him next day.

Napoleon looked at him.

Napoleon frowned and sat silent for a long time leaning his head on his hand.

Napoleon took a lozenge, put it in his mouth, and glanced at his watch.

Napoleon ordered another glass to be brought for Rapp, and silently sipped his own.

And having entered on the path of definition, of which he was fond, Napoleon suddenly and unexpectedly gave a new one.

Napoleon walked about in front of his tent, looked at the fires and listened to these sounds, and as he was passing a tall guardsman in a shaggy cap, who was standing sentinel before his tent and had drawn himself up like a black pillar at sight of the Emperor, Napoleon stopped in front of him.

Napoleon nodded and walked away.

At half-past five Napoleon rode to the village of Shevardino.

Napoleon with his suite rode up to the Shevardino Redoubt where he dismounted.

Napoleon, standing on the knoll, looked through a field glass, and in its small circlet saw smoke and men, sometimes his own and sometimes Russians, but when he looked again with the naked eye, he could not tell where what he had seen was.

The adjutant asked whether Napoleon wished the troops to cross it?

Napoleon gave orders that the troops should form up on the farther side and wait.

The marshals and generals, who were nearer to the field of battle but, like Napoleon, did not take part in the actual fighting and only occasionally went within musket range, made their own arrangements without asking Napoleon and issued orders where and in what direction to fire and where cavalry should gallop and infantry should run.

In the middle of the day Murat sent his adjutant to Napoleon to demand reinforcements.

"Reinforcements?" said Napoleon in a tone of stern surprise, looking at the adjutant--a handsome lad with long black curls arranged like Murat's own--as though he did not understand his words.

"Reinforcements!" thought Napoleon to himself.

Napoleon rose and having summoned Caulaincourt and Berthier began talking to them about matters unconnected with the battle.

In the midst of this conversation, which was beginning to interest Napoleon, Berthier's eyes turned to look at a general with a suite, who was galloping toward the knoll on a lathering horse.

Napoleon shrugged his shoulders and continued to pace up and down without replying.

"You are very fiery, Belliard," said Napoleon, when he again came up to the general.

"Now then, what do you want?" asked Napoleon in the tone of a man irritated at being continually disturbed.

"Asks for reinforcements?" said Napoleon with an angry gesture.

Napoleon gazed silently in that direction.

Napoleon did not notice that in regard to his army he was playing the part of a doctor who hinders by his medicines--a role he so justly understood and condemned.

Napoleon was experiencing a feeling of depression like that of an ever- lucky gambler who, after recklessly flinging money about and always winning, suddenly just when he has calculated all the chances of the game, finds that the more he considers his play the more surely he loses.

Despite news of the capture of the fleches, Napoleon saw that this was not the same, not at all the same, as what had happened in his former battles.

Amid the powder smoke, slowly dispersing over the whole space through which Napoleon rode, horses and men were lying in pools of blood, singly or in heaps.

Neither Napoleon nor any of his generals had ever before seen such horrors or so many slain in such a small area.

Napoleon rode up the high ground at Semenovsk, and through the smoke saw ranks of men in uniforms of a color unfamiliar to him.

Napoleon stopped his horse and again fell into the reverie from which Berthier had aroused him.

One of the generals rode up to Napoleon and ventured to offer to lead the Old Guard into action.

Ney and Berthier, standing near Napoleon, exchanged looks and smiled contemptuously at this general's senseless offer.

Napoleon bowed his head and remained silent a long time.

Napoleon had assented and had given orders that news should be brought to him of the effect those batteries produced.

"They want more!..." said Napoleon in a hoarse voice.

"They want more!" croaked Napoleon frowning.

To speak of what would have happened had Napoleon sent his Guards is like talking of what would happen if autumn became spring.

Napoleon did not give his Guards, not because he did not want to, but because it could not be done.

It was not Napoleon alone who had experienced that nightmare feeling of the mighty arm being stricken powerless, but all the generals and soldiers of his army whether they had taken part in the battle or not, after all their experience of previous battles--when after one tenth of such efforts the enemy had fled--experienced a similar feeling of terror before an enemy who, after losing HALF his men, stood as threateningly at the end as at the beginning of the battle.

The question for him now was: Have I really allowed Napoleon to reach Moscow, and when did I do so?

He was convinced that he alone could maintain command of the army in these difficult circumstances, and that in all the world he alone could encounter the invincible Napoleon without fear, and he was horrified at the thought of the order he had to issue.

It is impossible to suppose that Rostopchin had scared them by his accounts of horrors Napoleon had committed in conquered countries.

They knew that it was for the army to fight, and that if it could not succeed it would not do to take young ladies and house serfs to the Three Hills quarter of Moscow to fight Napoleon, and that they must go away, sorry as they were to abandon their property to destruction.

At that very time, at ten in the morning of the second of September, Napoleon was standing among his troops on the Poklonny Hill looking at the panorama spread out before him.

Napoleon had lunched and was again standing in the same place on the Poklonny Hill awaiting the deputation.

That speech was full of dignity and greatness as Napoleon understood it.

When with due circumspection Napoleon was informed that Moscow was empty, he looked angrily at his informant, turned away, and silently continued to walk to and fro.

Napoleon was to enter the town next day.

Napoleon or I, said the Emperor, touching his breast.

If Napoleon had not remained inactive?

What would have happened if on approaching Tarutino, Napoleon had attacked the Russians with but a tenth of the energy he had shown when he attacked them at Smolensk?

Napoleon, with his usual assurance that whatever entered his head was right, wrote to Kutuzov the first words that occurred to him, though they were meaningless.

NAPOLEON MOSCOW, OCTOBER 30, 1812

Napoleon himself was in Moscow as late as the twenty-fifth.

In view of all this information, when the enemy has scattered his forces in large detachments, and with Napoleon and his Guards in Moscow, is it possible that the enemy's forces confronting you are so considerable as not to allow of your taking the offensive?

Napoleon enters Moscow after the brilliant victory de la Moskowa; there can be no doubt about the victory for the battlefield remains in the hands of the French.

Of all that Napoleon might have done: wintering in Moscow, advancing on Petersburg or on Nizhni-Novgorod, or retiring by a more northerly or more southerly route (say by the road Kutuzov afterwards took), nothing more stupid or disastrous can be imagined than what he actually did.

Napoleon, the man of genius, did this!

With regard to military matters, Napoleon immediately on his entry into Moscow gave General Sabastiani strict orders to observe the movements of the Russian army, sent army corps out along the different roads, and charged Murat to find Kutuzov.

With regard to supplies for the army, Napoleon decreed that all the troops in turn should enter Moscow a la maraude * to obtain provisions for themselves, so that the army might have its future provided for.

With regard to religion, Napoleon ordered the priests to be brought back and services to be again performed in the churches.

In regard to philanthropy, the greatest virtue of crowned heads, Napoleon also did all in his power.

But as food was too precious to be given to foreigners, who were for the most part enemies, Napoleon preferred to supply them with money with which to purchase food from outside, and had paper rubles distributed to them.

The pursuit of the Russian army, about which Napoleon was so concerned, produced an unheard-of result.

Not only was the paper money valueless which Napoleon so graciously distributed to the unfortunate, but even silver lost its value in relation to gold.

The news of that battle of Tarutino, unexpectedly received by Napoleon at a review, evoked in him a desire to punish the Russians (Thiers says), and he issued the order for departure which the whole army was demanding.

Napoleon, too, carried away his own personal tresor, but on seeing the baggage trains that impeded the army, he was (Thiers says) horror-struck.

To study the skillful tactics and aims of Napoleon and his army from the time it entered Moscow till it was destroyed is like studying the dying leaps and shudders of a mortally wounded animal.

Napoleon, under pressure from his whole army, did the same thing.

His intention of killing Napoleon and his calculations of the cabalistic number of the beast of the Apocalypse now seemed to him meaningless and even ridiculous.

In the early days of October another envoy came to Kutuzov with a letter from Napoleon proposing peace and falsely dated from Moscow, though Napoleon was already not far from Kutuzov on the old Kaluga road.

The prisoner said that the troops that had entered Forminsk that day were the vanguard of the whole army, that Napoleon was there and the whole army had left Moscow four days previously.

Napoleon is at Forminsk, said Bolkhovitinov, unable to see in the dark who was speaking but guessing by the voice that it was not Konovnitsyn.

He thought too of the possibility (which he feared most of all) that Napoleon might fight him with his own weapon and remain in Moscow awaiting him.

That Napoleon has left Moscow?

So it came about that at the council at Malo-Yaroslavets, when the generals pretending to confer together expressed various opinions, all mouths were closed by the opinion uttered by the simple-minded soldier Mouton who, speaking last, said what they all felt: that the one thing needful was to get away as quickly as possible; and no one, not even Napoleon, could say anything against that truth which they all recognized.

The day after the council at Malo-Yaroslavets Napoleon rode out early in the morning amid the lines of his army with his suite of marshals and an escort, on the pretext of inspecting the army and the scene of the previous and of the impending battle.

If the Cossacks did not capture Napoleon then, what saved him was the very thing that was destroying the French army, the booty on which the Cossacks fell.

Disregarding Napoleon they rushed after the plunder and Napoleon managed to escape.

That Napoleon agreed with Mouton, and that the army retreated, does not prove that Napoleon caused it to retreat, but that the forces which influenced the whole army and directed it along the Mozhaysk (that is, the Smolensk) road acted simultaneously on him also.

Still less did that genius, Napoleon, know it, for no one issued any orders to him.

The Russian army, expecting Napoleon to take the road to the right beyond the Dnieper--which was the only reasonable thing for him to do-- themselves turned to the right and came out onto the highroad at Krasnoe.

Ney, who had had a corps of ten thousand men, reached Napoleon at Orsha with only one thousand men left, having abandoned all the rest and all his cannon, and having crossed the Dnieper at night by stealth at a wooded spot.

And Napoleon, escaping home in a warm fur coat and leaving to perish those who were not merely his comrades but were (in his opinion) men he had brought there, feels que c'est grand, *(2) and his soul is tranquil.

If the aim of the Russians consisted in cutting off and capturing Napoleon and his marshals--and that aim was not merely frustrated but all attempts to attain it were most shamefully baffled--then this last period of the campaign is quite rightly considered by the French to be a series of victories, and quite wrongly considered victorious by Russian historians.

The Russian military historians in so far as they submit to claims of logic must admit that conclusion, and in spite of their lyrical rhapsodies about valor, devotion, and so forth, must reluctantly admit that the French retreat from Moscow was a series of victories for Napoleon and defeats for Kutuzov.

The source of this contradiction lies in the fact that the historians studying the events from the letters of the sovereigns and the generals, from memoirs, reports, projects, and so forth, have attributed to this last period of the war of 1812 an aim that never existed, namely that of cutting off and capturing Napoleon with his marshals and his army.

All the profound plans about cutting off and capturing Napoleon and his army were like the plan of a market gardener who, when driving out of his garden a cow that had trampled down the beds he had planted, should run to the gate and hit the cow on the head.

The aim of cutting off Napoleon and his army never existed except in the imaginations of a dozen people.

So it was at Krasnoe, where they expected to find one of the three French columns and stumbled instead on Napoleon himself with sixteen thousand men.

Not only did his contemporaries, carried away by their passions, talk in this way, but posterity and history have acclaimed Napoleon as grand, while Kutuzov is described by foreigners as a crafty, dissolute, weak old courtier, and by Russians as something indefinite--a sort of puppet useful only because he had a Russian name.

And in a history recently written by order of the Highest Authorities it is said that Kutuzov was a cunning court liar, frightened of the name of Napoleon, and that by his blunders at Krasnoe and the Berezina he deprived the Russian army of the glory of complete victory over the French. *

Kutuzov did not understand what Europe, the balance of power, or Napoleon meant.

"And did you really see and speak to Napoleon, as we have been told?" said Princess Mary.

It is not Napoleon who prepares himself for the accomplishment of his role, so much as all those round him who prepare him to take on himself the whole responsibility for what is happening and has to happen.

The invaders flee, turn back, flee again, and all the chances are now not for Napoleon but always against him.

Napoleon himself is no longer of any account; all his actions are evidently pitiful and mean, but again an inexplicable chance occurs.

The Allies defeated Napoleon, entered Paris, forced Napoleon to abdicate, and sent him to the island of Elba, not depriving him of the title of Emperor and showing him every respect, though five years before and one year later they all regarded him as an outlaw and a brigand.

And Napoleon, shedding tears before his Old Guards, renounced the throne and went into exile.

And they defeated the genius Napoleon and, suddenly recognizing him as a brigand, sent him to the island of St. Helena.

To this, modern history laboriously replies either that Napoleon was a great genius, or that Louis XIV was very proud, or that certain writers wrote certain books.

Napoleon ordered an army to be raised and go to war.

We are so accustomed to that idea and have become so used to it that the question: why did six hundred thousand men go to fight when Napoleon uttered certain words, seems to us senseless.

If not, then why was Napoleon I?

Why was Napoleon III a criminal when he was taken prisoner at Boulogne, and why, later on, were those criminals whom he arrested?

Was the will of the Confederation of the Rhine transferred to Napoleon in 1806?

Was the will of the Russian people transferred to Napoleon in 1809, when our army in alliance with the French went to fight the Austrians?

Is the ferment of the peoples of the west at the end of the eighteenth century and their drive eastward explained by the activity of Louis XIV, XV, and XVI, their mistresses and ministers, and by the lives of Napoleon, Rousseau, Diderot, Beaumarchais, and others?

Napoleon III issues a decree and the French go to Mexico.

Napoleon I issues a decree and an army enters Russia.

When, for instance, we say that Napoleon ordered armies to go to war, we combine in one simultaneous expression a whole series of consecutive commands dependent one on another.

Napoleon could not have commanded an invasion of Russia and never did so.

We say that Napoleon wished to invade Russia and invaded it.

Even Napoleon, though enraged at the firmness with which he maintained the papal claims, could, not resist his personal fascination.

For this display of independence he was imprisoned at Reims, and not released till some three years later, when Napoleon had extorted terms from the captive pope at Fontainebleau.

Played in double time the tune was a favourite march in the Revolutionary armies, until it was forbidden by Napoleon, on becoming First Consul.

Napoleon III.

He was afterwards appointed the prince's envoy at Paris, where he remained till the decree of Napoleon, forbidding all persons born on the left side of the Rhine to serve any other state than France, compelled him to resign his office (IS'I).

In 1801 and 1802 Napoleon took into his own hands the independence of both Catholic and Protestant Churches, the national synod was abolished, and all active religious propaganda was rigorously forbidden.

They were published after his death by his son, William Theobald Wolfe Tone (1791-1828), who was educated by the French government and served with some distinction in the armies of Napoleon, emigrating after Waterloo to America, where he died, in New York City, on the 10th of October 1828.

In 1801 Austria was forced to cede it to Ercole III., duke of Modena, in compensation for the duchy of which Napoleon had deprived him.

Like Napoleon, with whom he has often been compared, he was equally illustrious as a soldier, a statesman, an orator, a legislator and an administrator.

Piedmont was organized in six departments on the model of those of France, and a number of French veterans were settled by Napoleon in and near the fortress of Alessandria.

Finally, after the proclamation of the French empire (May 18, 1804) Napoleon proposed to place his brother Joseph over the Italian state, which now took the title of kingdom of Italy.

Napoleon But were he to intervene in Italy, the intervention Ita~ly.

"Fine men!" remarked Napoleon, looking at a dead Russian grenadier, who, with his face buried in the ground and a blackened nape, lay on his stomach with an already stiffened arm flung wide.

He knew it was Napoleon--his hero--but at that moment Napoleon seemed to him such a small, insignificant creature compared with what was passing now between himself and that lofty infinite sky with the clouds flying over it.

"I should like to see the great man," he said, alluding to Napoleon, whom hitherto he, like everyone else, had always called Buonaparte.

"I am speaking, Prince, of the Emperor Napoleon," he replied.

At the time of the meeting at Tilsit he asked the names of those who had come with Napoleon and about the uniforms they wore, and listened attentively to words spoken by important personages.

Rostov, in common with the whole army from which he came, was far from having experienced the change of feeling toward Napoleon and the French- -who from being foes had suddenly become friends--that had taken place at headquarters and in Boris.

Only recently, talking with one of Platov's Cossack officers, Rostov had argued that if Napoleon were taken prisoner he would be treated not as a sovereign, but as a criminal.

The first in date and importance is that of 1801, concluded for France between Napoleon, First Consul, and Pius VII.

For the Italian republic, between Napoleon and Pius VII., analogous to the French concordat; abrogated.

The Cour des Comptes, an ancient tribunal, was abolished in 1791, and reorganized by Napoleon I.

On Joseph declining, Napoleon finally decided to accept the crown which Melzi, Marescalchi, Serbelloni and others begged him to assume.

Yet after these warlike declarations and after the signing of a military convention at Turin, the king agreeing to all the conditions proposed by Napoleon, the latter suddenly became pacific again, and adopted the Russian suggestion that Italian affairs should be settled by a congress.

Naturally I love peace and hate war and all that pertains to war; I see nothing admirable in the ruthless career of Napoleon, save its finish.